I, along with my co-chair Keir Gervais am
pleased to announce that this year’s Schooling Ride will add an education
program; and become the BCCTRA Schooling Ride & Equine
Educational Fair. The event will
be hosted out of the gorgeous, and centrally located, Cowichan Exhibition
Grounds, May 26 & 27 2012.

Earlier this year the Executive of our club
worked diligently on the Strategic Planning document; through that process your
Executive set out some goals to be achieved in 2012.

This year’s BCCTRASchooling
Ride & Equine Educational Fairwill provide education on
Competitive Trail riding to members and non members, and education on other
aspects of horse ownership.Additionally, I believe it will provide one of our key goals and that is
to create a social opportunity for members to meet with one another in a “non
competitive” environment and have a chance to share stories, swap ideas and
take in some learning all at the same time.

Camping will be available at the Cowichan
Exhibition Grounds and horse stalls will be available using a reservation
system.There are a number of hotels and
B&B’s within a close proximity of the grounds to enable participants to
come and enjoy the activities without the concerns of camping on site.

While the entire weekend has not been
firmed up yet and, the organizing committee has planned a dinner for the
Saturday night with a key note speaker and some of the other ideas being worked
on are;

a)Gear swap /used tack sale

b)Various clinics and workshops on both the Saturday and Sunday.

c)Silent Auction and 50/50 draws

The organizing committee will also be
offering to all our members in good
standing the unique opportunity to advertise their business at this year’s
event.We will include business cards,
brochures in participant’s packages and in the event program.Please contact me via email at ridingforfreedomranch@shaw.cato discuss your needs.

We welcome your ideas and suggestions and
of course volunteers are required throughout the weekend.If you can volunteer as a mentor rider for
our Schooling Ride and/or any of our other opportunities we’d like to hear from
you.

Look for a registration and information
form on both the BCCTRA blog, bcctra.blogspot.com and the website www.bcctra,cain the coming weeks.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

March 17, eleven riders headed out for a St Patricks Day ride at Englishman River. Organized and lead by Nancy Gourlay and Barbara Smith, the ride was great. Trails routed through trees, single track, wide trails and a bit of bushwacking! Nancy even made muffins to share on route.

Thanks for joining in everyone and to our hosts for the day. These rides are a great way to train while socializing with other riders - make sure to put the next ones on the calendar!